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FEATURES
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20.02.2025
The Reasons Why America Has Abandoned Democracy
This is Donald Trump's latest lie: He is a student of history.
A few days ago, an emboldened US president shared this cryptic message with his gullible followers and, by depressing extension, a world already exhausted only weeks after his jarring return to the Oval Office.
20.02.2025
DOGE Debunked: Billionaires Are Robbing You And Calling It 'Efficiency'
Are Trump and Elon Musk's budget and workforce cuts really about eliminating waste? Economist Richard Wolff argues that "government efficiency" is just a smokescreen for a deeper assault on the working class - slashing public services to serve the interests of the ultra-rich.
20.02.2025
Google Is On The Wrong Side Of History
Google continues to show us why it chose to abandon its old motto of "Don’t Be Evil," as it becomes more and more enmeshed with the military-industrial complex.
Most recently, Google has removed four key points from its AI principles. Specifically, it previously read that the company would not pursue AI applications involving (1) Weapons, (2) Surveillance, (3) Technologies that "cause or are likely to cause overall harm," and (4) Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.
Those principles are gone now.
19.02.2025
Retrophilia: How the 90s Ended - What You Leave Behind
How did you know when the '90s were over (apart from the date on the calendar)? Was it 9/11? The cancellation of Beverly Hills, 90210? When the cell phone started to eat your brain? Audra and Raymond close out Season 2 with this examination of era-ending events and trends. Thank you to the dear Retrophilia listeners for helping the research efforts.
18.02.2025
This Is Gaza: Witnessing The Israel Hamas War
'This Is Gaza' follows the emotional journey of Palestinian filmmaker Yousef Hammash. As Israel carried out an unprecedented assault on the territory, following the fatal Hamas attacks on October 7, Yousef reported from the warzone amidst the military and humanitarian crisis.
The film offers a devastating portrait of life and survival - before, during, and after the seismic events of October 7th - told through the eyes of Yousef.
Watching back his footage, he charts his family's displacement and the heartbreaking decision to leave his home as he travels south to Rafah and eventually to London, where he continues to report on the situation in Gaza.
The film is produced for Channel 4 Streaming, executive produced by Ed Fraser and Girish Juneja and directed by Tom Besley.
18.02.2025
A Letter From Gaza To Mr Trump
Dear Mr Trump,
I am writing to you as a Palestinian and a survivor of genocide, who was born and raised in Gaza - a city of love and resilience.
I have read your statements about Gaza and frankly, I am confused.
You claim to be a "peacemaker", but encourage Israel to continue its genocide, calling for "all hell" to break loose if your demands are not fulfilled.
Mr Trump, we have already been through hell. We lost 60,000 martyrs in it.
You claim credit for the ceasefire deal, and yet your government - one of its guarantors - refuses to pressure Israel into fulfilling all its obligations under it.
You call Gaza a "demolition site" but conveniently fail to name the criminal responsible - while simultaneously supplying it with more bombs, funding, and diplomatic cover.
You talk about Palestinians being "safe" and "happy", yet you refer to us as if we are a burden to be offloaded onto Jordan, Egypt, or any country willing to take us.
You claim that we "only want to be in the Gaza Strip because [we] don't know anything else".
Mr Trump, I think you profoundly misunderstand who we are and what Gaza is to us.
You may think of us as a mere obstacle to your vision of luxury resorts, but we are a people with deep roots, long history, and unalienable rights. We are the rightful owners of our land.
18.02.2025
Fact Check: JD Vance's Free Speech Attack Claims Debunked
During his recent visit at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, US Vice President JD Vance claimed European freedom of speech was in decline. DW's Team Fact check takes a closer look at some of his examples and provides context surrounding these cases.
Claim: The Scottish government has allegedly warned citizens that praying at home could be illegal. "The Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called Safe Access Zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law," Vance said. "Naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime."
DW Fact check: Misleading.
While it is true that Scotland introduced so-called Safe Access Zones within 200 meters (about 650 feet) of abortion clinics in September 2024 and banned "silent prayer" and similar pressure-building activities to keep women from going through with abortions, silent prayer at home with no distress to others is not included in the ban.
However, the law does stipulate that even activities that can be seen or heard within the zone and are "done intentionally or recklessly" in a private place within the area (like a house) between the protected premises and the boundary of a zone could be an offense.
It's a common tactic by US anti-abortion activists, so-called "pro-lifers," to gather in front of abortion clinics, handing out fliers, showing photos of fetuses or using the cover of prayer to intimidate women entering the clinics to pressure them into keeping the baby.
"This is shocking and shameless misinformation from Vice President JD Vance," said Gillian Mackay, Member of the Scottish Parliament on X, who had introduced the Safe Access Zones bill.
17.02.2025
How Aleister Crowley Influenced Generations Of Metal Bands
Few figures continue to cast such a huge shadow over the metal scene as Aleister Crowley, the famous - and infamous - 20th century occultist. In 2006, Crowley aficionados Dani Filth, Ville Valo and more looked at metal's undying love affair with the man known as The Great Beast.
If Satan decreed a patron saint for rock music, it should surely be Edward Alexander Crowley - better known as Aleister Crowley, To Mega Therion, or The Great Beast 666.
"His being an outsider and his challenging of societal norms is definitely why heavy metal found an affinity with Crowley" former HIM frontman Ville Valo says. "He was one of the first rock'n'rollers. Newspaper headlines in the early 1900s said that he was the wickedest man on earth, partly because he was living outside of society's rules."
Part of that rule-breaking of course, came in The Great Beast's rejection of Christianity in favour of his own more devilish creed, which sanctified sex and drugs - in which light it's easy to see how rock'n'roll slid so snugly into the equation after his death in 1947.
16.02.2025
Top 7 Things Linux Does Better Than Windows
What Linux does better than Windows 10 or Windows 11. Including a choice of desktop, customization, and bringing new life to old hardware.
16.02.2025
Intelligent Life Could Be More Common Than Previously Believed
In 1961, Frank Drake introduced the Drake Equation, estimating the likelihood of advanced civilizations in the Milky Way. By 2023, advances in exoplanet science and astrobiology led to refinements, including Sara Seager's equation focusing on biosignatures.
Previously, physicist Brandon Carter's 1983 "hard steps" model argued that life is rare due to improbable evolutionary leaps. The Penn State study revisits this model, offering a fresh perspective.
Scientists have long explored planetary habitability using Goldilocks Zones—regions where conditions are "just right" for life. Stephen H. Dole introduced this concept in 1964, examining factors like temperature and liquid water. Seager expanded on this with Hycean worlds, exoplanets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres and oceans that could support life.
15.02.2025
What's In A Name, JD?
Here at 'Bumpkin Watch' our investigative journalist team have uncovered the real reason why weirdy-trimmed-beardy JD Vance uses his initials rather than either of his actual forenames. At first we just assumed it was some kind of a hillbilly thing like being called Gomer, Cletus or Booger, but it actually turns out it's because his real name is even more shit than any of those.
Vance, whose parents were siblings, was actually christened Jebediah Doofus on August 3rd, 1984 by his mentally ill mother, Trixie-Bob, at the Middletown Confessional Calvinist Church, Ohio after she escaped from the local mental institute with the one day old nipper.
His father, Goober Charles Jnr (renowned crystal meth manufacturer and three time near miss KKK Grand Wizard) passed away eight months earlier in what has only been described in the local 'Middletown Gazette' as "a freak washing machine accident". According to sources, Goober, "was at the local laundromat" and "got his frayed neckerchief caught in the machine's drive belt during its spin cycle". Apparently he had been "raking for loose change through a removed rear panel".
Initially christened with the surname Bomen, his mother changed it to Reynolds when she married her sixth husband and uncle, Herschel Beauregard "Burt" Reynolds III.
Quite where he got the surname Vance from has remained a mystery for many years, however, having recently tracked down his old juvenile detention buddy Virgil Buford, we can confirm that he adopted it from the famous UK Radio One disc jockey and heavy metal enthusiast, Tommy Vance, whom JD had become enamoured with during his early years. Sources have disclosed that he used to tune in to his step father's portable shortwave radio every Friday night during Uncle Herschel's weekly weekend "fishing" trips, although Buford did remark that "the only fishing Ol' Burt ever got up to was for some well worn pussy."
"I can't believe he's got to where he is today," Buford added, "to start from such humble beginnings and end up third in command of the country under Elon is one hellava achievement."
15.02.2025
How The US Uses 'Aid' As Soft Power To Dominate The World
For decades, US imperialism has operated not just through military force but through a vast system of economic coercion, media manipulation, and covert operations. The World Bank, IMF, and USAID present themselves as tools of development, but in reality, they enforce American dominance under the guise of aid.
Now, with Trump and Musk cutting USAID, many see this as a shift, but in reality, it's just a restructuring of the empire. What does this tell us about the evolving strategies of imperialism? How does economic warfare, soft power, and media complicity allow the U.S. and its allies to maintain control with minimal backlash?
Investigative journalist Matt Kennard, co-founder of Declassified UK and author of The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs. The American Empire, joins Rania Khalek to expose how U.S. and British intelligence operations, including spy flights over Gaza, are deeply entangled with global imperial control.
14.02.2025
Getting Started In DXing
As long as there has been radio, there have been DXers.
The call of the chase for elusive and exotic signals has snared many an unsuspecting person. Now, you are ready to count yourself among that number. Congratulations, welcome to the family and get comfy. There is a lot to learn!
Do not fear, though. This isn't the kind of thing where you have to learn everything just to be able to enjoy the hobby. It's not like learning a new instrument where the learning and skill curve is so steep, that people just give up after a short amount of time.
In fact, some of you reading this may even be experienced DXers looking to either brush up their knowledge or pick up a tip or trick that you hadn't been using before.
The art and skill of DX is one that allows you to learn at your pace. You decide your comfort level and how deeply down the rabbit hole you want to go. There is no set timeline, there is no pressure. This is supposed to be fun.
14.02.2025
The United States Is Falling Apart And The World Is Taking Notice
The United States is imploding. The reign of Donald Trump is not only challenging and threatening the very foundations of its constitutional democracy, it is calling into question the U.S.'s post-World War II hegemonic role. Empires or hegemonic powers rise and fall. Often they are defeated by emerging powers. Sometimes their decline takes place over time. But rarely do they self-destruct as spectacularly as the U.S. is doing. The U.S. implosion is dramatic in its intensity and rapidity. In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States' position in the world from a global power to an international outcast. Despite whatever military and economic power the U.S. still has, its image and global leadership have been undermined by President Trump's foreign policy decisions.
The word "implode" is rarely used in international relations. The decline of empires or hegemonic powers is usually due to external forces. The Roman Empire fell because of a series of invasions by "barbarian tribes." The Ottoman Empire fell because it aligned with Germany during World War I and was formally dismantled after the War because it had chosen the losing side.
The United States is now in the throes of losing its global position by an implosion based on President Trump's policies. Internationally, Trump has undermined the U.S.'s global image and influence by systematically provoking allies, neutrals and competitors. Besides targeted tariff threats and proposals for territorial expansion into Greenland, Panama and Canada, the president has made two policy decisions that have led to universal condemnation with major global repercussions.
13.02.2025
FBI Says It Has Discovered Thousands Of New JFK Assassination Files
The FBI has announced the discovery of thousands of records related to the assassination of John F Kennedy following searches undertaken to comply with an executive order by United States President Donald Trump.
The FBI said on Tuesday that searches had turned up about 2,400 "newly inventoried and digitized records that were previously unrecognized as related to the JFK assassination case file".
12.02.2025
Humans Optional: Tomorrow's Internet Of Agents Will Bypass Homo Sapiens
The next frontier of artificial intelligence is unfolding and, worryingly for many, human involvement may not be a central requirement.
Discussions in tech circles are increasingly focused on building a framework where AI agents - autonomous, reasoning machines - collaborate seamlessly to achieve complex tasks independent of human oversight. Dubbed the "Internet of Agents," this next step could ultimately redefine how businesses and industries operate.
Cisco’s Outshift group is one of the key players tackling the challenges of creating the infrastructure necessary to connect these AI agents.
11.02.2025
A Thief's Mentality: Trump, Real Estate And Dreams Of Ethnic Cleansing
President Donald J. Trump likes teasing out the unmentionable, and the Israel-Palestinian situation was hardly going to be any different. With a touch of horror and the grotesque, he offered a solution to the issue of what would happen to Gaza at the conclusion of hostilities. In a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he declared that the United States "take over and own the Gaza Strip", in the process promising to "create an economic development that will supply an unlimited number of jobs and housing for people of the area."
The strip, one of the most densely populated stretches of territory on the planet, would be reconstructed, redeveloped and turned, effectively, into a beach resort, "the Riviera of the Middle East." Here was the double battering being dished out to an impoverished, tormented, tortured population: not only would any aspiration of political independence and Palestinian sovereignty be terminated, it would reach its terminus in the form of tourist capitalism and real estate transactions.
This development idea in Trumpland is not new. In October 2024, the then Republican presidential candidate told a radio interviewer that Gaza could be "better than Monaco", provided it was built in the appropriate way. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, conceded at an event held at Harvard in February last year that "waterfront property" in Gaza "could be very valuable". Israel, he proposed, could "move the people out and then clean it up".
10.02.2025
Figure AI Company Will Create 100,000 Humanoid Robots
Figure AI has announced its second major commercial partnership, bringing humanoid robots closer to everyday use. CEO Brett Adcock revealed the deal could enable the shipment of 100,000 robots over the next four years.
While the new customer remains undisclosed, Adcock described it as "one of the biggest U.S. companies," sparking speculation it could be a major retailer or tech firm with significant labor needs.
Adcock shared the update on LinkedIn, emphasizing the importance of deep relationships with high-capacity customers. "Our newest customer is one of the biggest U.S. companies," he said.
09.02.2025
Trump’s Sanctions Against The ICC Are Disgraceful
Donald Trump’s executive order reauthorizing sanctions against international criminal court (ICC) personnel reflects a disgraceful effort to ensure that no American, or citizen of an ally such as Israel, is ever investigated or prosecuted. Quite apart from this warped sense of justice - that it is only for other people - the president’s limited view of the court’s powers was rejected in the treaty establishing the court and repudiated by the Joe Biden administration and even the Republican party. But that didn’t stop Trump.
The US government traditionally has had no problem with two of the three ways that the court can obtain jurisdiction because it could control them. Washington is fine with the court prosecuting citizens of states that are members of the court because it has no intention of joining them. And it accepts that the United Nations security council can confer jurisdiction because it can exercise its veto to block prosecutions it doesn’t like.
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